Entrusted: A Drug of Desire Novel

by Sidney Bristol

  Matías held her, squeezing her to his chest, as if he could join their souls while the fog of release abated.

  “Please tell me we’re done with the vibrator.” Raven’s head rested on his shoulder, and he could feel her breath on his neck.

  “Maybe.” He had no intention of pushing her farther. Two scenes and all their emotional baggage later and they were in a better place.

  “Red,” she said with no emotion. “I’m done. No more.”

  He laughed and kissed her. She smiled and kissed him back.

  “This is going to tickle.” He pulled out and she whimpered, her face creased in something like pain. He eased her legs to the ground and swiftly buckled his pants, more concerned with taking care of her than himself.

  He helped her to stand and quickly released the ropes holding her thighs. As soon as she could stand on her own feet, he got her arms free and then the rest of her. She wobbled a little, her gaze glassy and unfocused.

  There was no way she was going to stand for two seconds on her own. He grabbed her slip and wrestled it on over her head. With her at least moderately covered, he swept her up in his arms and marched out of the dungeon. He could clean up after them later, though the staff would probably swarm in as soon as they left. Regardless, Raven was his first priority.

  He carried her all the way back to their suite at the other end of the house and to their bed. He laid her down and crawled in after her, holding her tight. Their bodies might no longer be joined, but he felt her, in his heart, in his soul, everywhere.

  * * * * *

  Raven’s eyes popped open for at least the fifth time that morning. The blackout curtains made the room practically pitch dark, but her internal clock clamored for her to get up. The sun had already been up for an hour or two, and her poor, abused body did not want to go back to sleep.

  She stretched, feeling a hundred twinges all over her body. Her shoulders and arms still felt like dead weights, and there was a particularly bad rope burn on her left inner thigh. But each and every mark was a reminder that last night had happened. It wasn’t a dream or something she’d conjured. They’d really done everything.

  Matías slept on peacefully. He had one arm flung out toward her, fingers brushing her arm. Come to think of it, whenever they slept he was touching her. She smiled at the dark lump next to her. He needed to sleep more than she did right now. At least she’d had a long nap yesterday. He’d maybe gotten half an hour before the three ring circus started.

  She folded the blanket and sheet back, sliding out of the bed until her toes touched the carpet. The bed dipped and rose with her movements. She held her breath as she stood, watching Matías for signs of life.

  “Where are you going?” he mumbled.

  “I thought you were asleep,” she whispered.

  “I was.”

  “Go back to sleep. I’m going to get some breakfast and find Níłch’i.”

  “Okay.” He yawned and rolled over.

  She exhaled. So much for keeping quiet.

  Raven grabbed a change of clothes from her bag and tip-toed into the living room to get dressed. She finger combed her hair into a messy bun. There were a hundred and one things she needed to line up for the day, like their flight to Columbia and where the heck Níłch’i was. Like hell she was going to let Matías go on his own, especially after last night.

  God, last night…

  Her mind kept going back to it. Replaying certain moments. She’d never experienced anything like what Matías did to her, which made it more difficult to process—but she liked it. She liked who they were together.

  She left the suite, not entirely sure where one might get breakfast in a place like this. The obvious place to start was the office Matías had pointed out to her after their arrival. Someone there could direct her to food. She took the elevator, feeling silly since it was only three stories, but her legs weren’t about to hold up to that many stairs, and she’d need all her strength later.

  The double doors leading into the administration offices were cracked open. Raven poked her head in, not sure what to expect. There was a desk facing the door, which was empty of anything save a monitor. Toward the back of the room several screens had been set up to block off another section.

  “Hello?” Raven called.

  “Uh, hi?” a woman’s voice responded.

  “I’m looking for my dog. Seen a wiener on legs lately?”

  An unmistakable little yip she’d recognize anywhere came from behind those screens.

  “Oh shit.” Metal banged against metal and a chair squeaked. “Fuck. Ouch. He’s here.”

  Raven rounded the end of the screens and stopped. Níłch’i had a leash attached to his harness, which was wrapped around the seat of a desk chair, holding a woman with wild, curling hair hostage. She didn’t seem to mind too much though, she chuckled and smiled at the dog.

  “Hey, there you are.” Raven cooed at Níłch’i, going to a knee and unclipping the leash to free the other woman.

  “He’s quite the companion.” The woman wound the leash into a coil and set it on the desk.

  Raven sat on the floor, her back against another desk and let Níłch’i crawl into her lap.

  “He’s the best co-pilot around.” She smiled as Níłch’i flopped over on his back, wallowing around until he lay in the seam between her legs, tail slapping her knee.

  “You’re Raven, right?”

  She glanced up at the woman. “Yeah.”

  “I’m Gio.” She stuck out her hand.

  “Oh, Gio.” The woman Damien and Matías had spoken of warmly—if a bit apprehensively, at least about bringing her in. “Nice to put a face to the name.”

  “Yeah, sorry we didn’t get to meet yesterday, but by the time I was set up, you guys had crashed, and then everything was rolling.”

  “Did you…get…anything you can use? I’m not entirely sure what you guys were doing.”

  Gio turned toward the bank of small monitors behind her, and back toward Raven. “Yes. And it’s legal, which made this whole thing much easier.”

  “What do you mean—legal? You’re DEA, right?”

  “Well, Illinois has some messy history with wiretapping. Suffice to say, we cover our asses. Those consent forms everyone signs before they come here? They have a version with a clause that warns people the internal monitoring system may be recorded. That’s what they had everyone sign yesterday—which means Victor and his buddies gave us complete permission to record them. Now, the trick was that the in-house system is for video only, so we had to rig the important areas we thought they might go with microphones. We got everything that happened last night on tape.”

  Everything?

  Oh shit…had she signed the form? Matías had put a pen in her hand at some point, but she’d been too tired to ask what it was. If she’d known what they were going to do—she’d never have signed that thing.

  chapter Seventeen

  “Not that they said much. Just a lot of bullshit about being big money. But I suppose the only thing that matters were the coordinates Victor gave Matías. Which, we already have on the books for you guys to do a hop.” Gio grabbed a clip board from a corner of the desk. “Yup. It looks like you could fly straight there, but I’d rather you touch down with enough fuel to get you far, far away if the shit hits the fan, you know?”

  “Yeah, thanks. When do we leave?”

  “Ten, so you guys will have to leave before too long.”

  Raven stared at Níłch’i. This whole thing was a lot of stress on the old dog. He was used to being up in a bi-plane for a few hours at a time. The idea of taking him into Columbia, where God only knew what was going to happen to them, it just wasn’t fair.

  “Hey, I know this is probably not the best time to ask this, but I don’t think Níłch’i should go on this trip with us.” Raven had had a bad feeling about Victor since the moment she laid eyes on him, and that moment in Panama really sealed it for her. They were pushing their luck with
that man. “Is there a boarding place around here or something?”

  The fuel to fly to Chicago and the cash to board him were going to kill her, but it was the right decision. Anything might happen in Columbia.

  “Oh, fuck boarding.” Gio waved her hand. “He can stay with me. I’ve got a big German Sheppard, and he loves little dogs. I swear, he’s the baddest dog at the park until someone’s little fluffer-nut comes prancing to him and he just rolls over for them. He’ll be butt-sniffing buddies with this guy before he’s out of his crate.”

  “Really?” Relief nearly drowned her.

  “Sure. Besides, it’ll save the agency some cash reimbursing you. They’ll like that, since this whole thing wasn’t supposed to take this long—or be this expensive.”

  “Reimbursing? No one’s mentioned that.”

  “It might take a while, but yeah, you’ll be reimbursed for all of this. It was in that long disclosure thing they had you sign.”

  “Oh.” The one she’d signed without looking over at all. Awesome. She was doing a great job at watching out for herself.

  “I’ll take him with me, and when you guys are done we can fly him back to you, or you can come for a visit. But, if you come, you have to bring Matías with you.” Gio’s smile was fond. “He gave us a pretty bad scare last year.”

  “He told me a little about it.”

  “And probably downplayed the seriousness of it.” Gio rolled her eyes. “Fucking men.”

  “It was bad?”

  “They lost him on the table at least once that they told us about.” Gio’s gaze lost all the light, and for a moment she seemed to be a haunted woman.

  Raven stared at her. Words had left her. A world without Matías?

  “Can I ask you a rude, personal question?” Gio’s tone was hesitant. “I mean, I know I could probably ask anyone here, but they treat this place like a church and it gets a little, I don’t know, creepy. You seem a lot like me, so maybe you can explain it to me…”

  “Explain what?” Raven swallowed hard.

  “This BDSM, kink thing. I don’t get it.”

  Oh, boy. She shifted, wincing as a muscle twinged, reminding her of last night all over again.

  “To be honest, I’m pretty new to it as well.” Raven didn’t know how to begin explaining what she didn’t understand. She only had her feelings to go on.

  “Oh, okay. Never mind.”

  Maybe if Raven explained it, Damien and Matías wouldn’t have to later. They didn’t seem all that keen on the idea.

  “It’s like this…” Raven opened and closed her mouth, searching for the right words. “I’m used to being on my own. I make the choices, things only get done if I do them, and a lot of work back home doesn’t happen unless I’m standing over people, forcing them to do their jobs. We own a little cargo and airstrip business in New Mexico. Anyway…” She stared at the screen across from her and let her mind wander, picking out the important pieces. Damn, she should probably call home, but what was the point? She’d said everything she needed to before she left. Her future, the next chapter of her life, was upstairs. “Being with Matías, and doing what he—does—it…it’s like it frees me. I don’t have to be in charge. He takes control, he tells me what to do, it’s fun, and…it’s a relief, honestly. I’ve never had someone take care of me like that before. Ever since I was little, my dad pushed me to be independent and take care of myself. I’m not looking to change who I am, but for however long we’re doing the BDSM stuff, that weight isn’t on me. When we’re done it’s like my whole body is lighter. That’s probably not the best answer.”

  “No, no, that—I get. I mean, I think I get it. It’s not like I’ve never looked at this stuff before. It’s just…do I treat the guys the same way? Is it going to be weird?”

  “They’re thinking the same thing.” Raven smiled at her. “They’re as concerned as you are that this is going to change things. And it shouldn’t. They’re the same people. They just have different…hobbies.”

  “Wrapping a chick in duct tape and poking her with barbeque skewers is a hobby?” Gio thumbed over her shoulder at the monitors.

  “Hey, it’s consensual.” Raven swallowed hard again. Fuck, she wanted to know. “Did you…Can you see all over the house on those?”

  “Yeah, all the dungeons, at least two cameras on every hall, and four on communal spaces.” Gio glanced over her shoulder at the darkened screens.

  Oh, shit. And that was on tape?

  “Yamamoto came and got all the mini-discs for the areas where Victor never went. If you’re worried at all. I mean, I didn’t watch. I’d left for a bit since Victor was gone and came back…I turned the monitor off.”

  “Well, this is an awkward moment I never thought I’d have.” Raven laughed. It was either that or pray the ground would open up and swallow her, but chances of that happening were slim.

  “Yeah, this whole night has been—surreal.” Gio rubbed the palm of her hands against her eyes.

  “What are you doing now?”

  “Paperwork. The bread and butter of our government.” Gio sighed.

  “Any idea where I can get some breakfast? If we have to be out of here soon, I’d like to get moving and see to my plane myself.”

  “Oh, sure. The formal dining room has a buffet set up.”

  “Perfect.” Raven pulled Níłch’i up against her chest to snuggle the dog. She was going to miss his take-off howl.

  “Hey, it was good to meet you.” Gio held out her hand again and shook Raven’s. “I’m glad Matías found someone.”

  “Good to meet you, too. And thanks for offering to watch Níłch’i. I hate leaving him, but…I just have this bad feeling we’re pushing our luck, you know?”

  “Oh, I’m right there with you.” Gio shook her head.

  Raven didn’t know if she should be relieved or worried a stranger was confirming her premonitions. Either way, she now had words for why her relationship with Matías meant so much to her. She trusted him on a level she’d never been able to before.

  Matías listened to the sound of the suite door opening. It was Raven. He could tell by the way she crept through the rooms on tip-toes, making hardly any sound at all. If it weren’t for the click of dishes together, he might not have heard her move.

  She set her load on the foot of the bed.

  He hadn’t been able to go back to sleep since she left. Though he knew he should get up and pack, a few more minutes between the sheets had sounded like a good idea. He just hadn’t left it.

  The mattress dipped. Slowly, she crawled up his body until she straddled his lower thighs. She tugged the blankets down. It took firm determination to not open his eyes. He wasn’t much for surprises, but he was curious about what Raven might do.

  The cool air grazed his skin, but he felt it most at his stomach. The old scars ached, but that was nothing new.

  Raven slid her hands up and down his thighs, warming the skin. His dick twitched, already semi-erect. She touched his hips, traced the lines that slashed down his abdomen and finally wrapped one hot little hand around his cock. She squeezed slightly, working her hand back and forth, testing her grip.

  He opened his eyes, barely, just enough to see her outline as she knelt over him. There wasn’t time for this. They should be getting their shit together to leave, and yet, he wasn’t about to stop her. She pumped his cock, slow and steady, running her thumbs along the underside of his cock. He groaned, despite his best intentions to stay quiet. She chuckled, and the gig was up.

  Matías grabbed her by the waist and flipped them. She cried out, which turned into a laugh as he settled on top of her, her thighs parting to accept him in the cradle of her body. She smoothed her hands over his shoulders and down his chest.

  “You weren’t asleep at all,” she said.

  “Nope.” He kissed her cheek, mindful of his morning breath.

  “No fair.”

  “Mm.” He flexed his hips and she gasped.

  “I’m pretty
sure my vagina is way too tired after last night.”

  “Hair of the dog.” He stood and grabbed her hand, tugging her up out of the bed and toward the bathroom.

  “I don’t think that works with sex.” She laughed and followed him into the master bath. She didn’t put up much of a protest as he divested her of her clothes and turned on the shower.

  They had to be out pretty soon, so why not combine two activities?

  “We’ll find out.” He pushed her into the glass enclosed shower stall and paused to check out the stash of house provided supplies. They were in a small metal filigree box, mounted to the outside of the shower with a handy, water tight slot on the inside for easy access.

  Condoms, flavored lube, mints and bondage tape. Enough to spice up a morning routine. He grabbed several of the mints and popped them in his mouth, crunching them to do the job faster.

  “I’m serious. After last night I can’t walk in a straight line.” Raven turned, shoving her hands through her hair. Water poured down from three heads. It was practically a room all by itself, and it really could fit several people, maybe as many as five or six.

  He joined her under the spray, wrapping his arms around her. She kissed him, proving his theory correct. The more she complained about it, the more she probably wanted it. He dug his hands onto her ass, reacquainting himself with her body. In a matter of a few moments, she was panting and holding onto him just as tight.

  “Not fair,” she mumbled as he kissed her neck, backing her toward the tile wall.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because, it’s totally unnatural to want someone this much. I’m pretty sure I should be sitting on ice right now. Literally.”

  “If that’s your kink, we can make that happen.” He grinned.

  “Uh, no thanks.” She traced his lips with her finger.

  “What?”

  “You’re smiling more. I like it.”

  “You give me a lot to smile about.” He wrapped his hand in her hair and pulled her head back, exposing her neck.